Sunday, December 30, 2012

hmmmmmmmm....... not so sure on the longer arm now. It really kicks that wheel out the back.....
Plus, the monoshock setup won't work without drilling a massive hole in the top of the arm, which would further weaken it. Not sure that will work.

With the Harley shocks. That's cool, a little bit wide maybe but it would work.

Shocks moved back to give a better ride. Doesn't look as good, and it would require some healthy beef where they mount, which means a lot of rebuilding of the original mount.

Wednesday, December 26, 2012

When people ask us how much money is invested in the CNC milling setup, they choke when we tell them that it's more than a nice used car, or two, or three. We drive broke down vehicles that we can barely trust around town in order to buy tools capable of turning an idea into a product in a four hour span. From the design, to the coding, to cutting the blank, to testing the code, to milling a stamp, to pressing leather in the hydraulic press, we can have a new product line in half a day. And that is pretty much what is meant by "build life" on this latest keychain- sacrificing normal creature comforts and devoting that time and money to a craft.
By the way, if you are need of your own custom CNC'd leather stamp, or any variety of small, one-off machined bits, contact us here.

Sunday, December 23, 2012

...klink! That's about what the new (old) Pexto 137 sounds like. Worked out a labor trade with Nick from Ace Cyle / Trumpnut here in Reno for this bitchin foot shear. Cut up a ton of good sheet just because it's so fun!

Finally got a chance to put the Ironhead back up on my lift and address some issues- first and foremost cut the exhaust in the front and raised it up an inch, the muffler would drag in hard right turns.

Then Danny machined some stainless rocker nuts for the left side to replace the crappy plastic tipped Harley garbage.

Finally, got the new 7/16" conical head bolts in the sprocket. A while back, three of the 5/16" bolts sheared off and one jammed into the chain adjuster as I was coming into the driveway. The wheel is tapped for 5/16" bolts, however the sprocket was designed for 7/16", rather than drill and tap out the wheels I expected the smaller bolts to hold the sprocket centered with the flanges- WRONG. The extra slop and leverage of the spacer caused them to loosen. Danny machined the spacer holes to 7/16" and straightened the pattern (the spacers were on the bike when I got it, and mis-machined), and I drilled and tapped the wheel. We did the same thing on the brake side for peace of mind.

Also resealed the generator for the FOURTH time. Let's hope it stops leaking now, LOL

Saturday, December 15, 2012

Friday, December 14, 2012

The Lincoln welders felt totally negelected with the new Miller in the house- so we made a whole new cart and stacked the SP up on the TIG, and made this super cool little welding helper! We never really had a good setup to stow all the cords, the helmet, gloves, and more, but here it is. Way cool...

For those new to B&B, we are all about the DIY mentality, and that includes our apparel. We print each shirt by hand, one at a time in our laundry room, the old school way with a simple screen, some clamps, an iron- not even a hinged fixture! They certainly have a lot of character since each one is unique.... But anyway, these will be the last shirts we print for quite a while, and our webstore has been totally updated to reflect all of our current stock. If interested you can purchase one here at our web store.

.... Spaceship?!?! Who'd have though joining two pieces of metal would necessitate such complex circuitry? Good thing I'm not an electrician or this would scare me- all we had to do was swap the jumpers and some input wire positions to get the new Arc Pak 350 to single phase for home use.

I know- it's sacriligious to think we would ever get rid of the Sherpa, let alone trade it for one of those BLUE machines, but this tool is more of an investment in our future than an old trials bike, so it had to be done. Arc Pak 350 with a 22A wire feeder, cart, and more. Farewall, Sherpa, we will miss you lots......